Tuesdays with Dorie: Wattleseed Crème Brûlée
September 30, 2008 at 9:15 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 54 Comments
Who doesn’t like crème brûlée? At every restaurant I’ve worked in, if brûlée is on the dessert menu, it outsells all the rest. Although I’m not so keen to order it myself (other things always seem much more interesting), I do like it, too. With that crunchy caramelized top, and silky smooth custard, how could I not? It’s Mevrouw Cupcake Mari’s choice for TWD this week.
Dorie’s recipe is unusual, in that, instead of baking the custards in a water bath at about 300°F, they’re baked at a much lower 200°F, without water. I was a little skeptical, but they set up nicely in about 50 minutes. I don’t have proper crème brûlée dishes so I used little teacups instead.
I flavored my brûlées with ground wattleseed, which I steeped in the warm milk and cream (one teaspoon for the two servings I made). The wattleseed gave it a lovely color and taste, much like café au lait. And then of course, there is the sugary top…
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Mevrouw Cupcake. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
Cupcake Hero: Cocoa-Malt Cupcakes with Malted Marshmallow Frosting
September 29, 2008 at 8:21 pm | Posted in cupcakes, events, sweet things | 13 Comments
Happy anniversary, Cupcake Hero! I haven’t participated in CH for the past few months, but how could I not jump back in the game to help Laurie celebrate its first year? The theme for this month is actually to choose two themes from the past year and combine them into one double-good cupcake. In honor of the festivities, I went with cocoa and marshmallow, (two of the past year’s best) to come up with these Cocoa-Malt Cupcakes with Malted Marshmallow Frosting.
Ever since I cracked open my jar of malt syrup earlier in the month, I’ve been dreaming of malt! A bit of a one-track mind, I know. I decided to incorporate the flavor into a simple Devil’s Food batter made with cocoa powder. The frosting is a “loose interpretation” of marshmallow, in that no gelatin is involved. Rather than mess with a sugar syrup, I made a fluffy Swiss meringue, also flavored, of course, with malt.
I was a little nervous wondering whether or not the addition of malt syrup to the batter would affect the baking. They took a full 25 minutes in my oven, and after removing them from the cupcake tin, they still felt a little soft. I put them on a sheet tray (out of the tin) and stuck them back in the oven for another 5 minutes. When we had them later that night, the cakes were soft and moist and perfectly baked. And the marshmallow frosting was sweet and sticky, just like it should be.
Check out the new Cupcake Hero page for a run-down of all this month’s entries!
Cocoa-Malt Cupcakes with Malted Marshmallow Frosting– makes 6 regular-size cupcakes
For the cupcakes:
Note: For a more traditional Devil’s Food cupcake, replace the malt syrup with a dash of vanilla extract or a sprinkle of instant espresso powder.
1/6 c cocoa powder
1/4 c boiling water
1/4 c sour cream
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/8 c vegetable oil
2 t barley malt syrup
1/2 c AP flour
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c light brown sugar, packed
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t kosher salt
-Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake tin with 6 paper liners.
-Put the cocoa in a medium bowl, pour the boiling water over it and whisk to combine. Let sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Add the sour cream, egg, oil and malt syrup and whisk to thouroughly combine.
-In a separate bowl, sift or whisk the dry ingredients (including sugars) to combine.
-Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk just until blended.
-Divide the batter among the cupcake cups. The batter will be loose, so transferring it to a measuring cup and pouring it into the cups is probably easiest.
-Bake for about 25 minutes, until puffed and springy to the touch.
-Cool for 5 minutes and remove from the pans. If the cupcakes feel soft on the bottom, set them on a baking sheet (not in cupcake tin) and pop them back in the oven for 5 minutes to firm up. Allow to cool completely on a rack before frosting.
For the frosting:
Note: Because this is meringue, it’s best to make the frosting just before topping your cupcakes (in other words, don’t make the frosting until you are ready to use it). You can store the frosted cupcakes in the fridge overnight, if you have leftovers. The meringue will be a little softer the next day, but still good!
1/4 c egg whites (about 2 whites)
1/2 c sugar
1 T barley malt syrup
-Combine sugar and egg whites in large metal bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Set bowl over saucepan of gently simmering water and whisk until mixture is hot to the touch and all the sugar has dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. Remove bowl from over water. Using the stand mixer fitted with the whip or a handheld electric mixer, beat meringue at high speed until very thick and billowy and room temperature, about 3-5 minutes.
-Add the malt syrup and whip on low speed for 1 minute.
-Spread or pipe the frosting on the cooled cupcakes.
Daring Bakers in September: Lavash Crackers & Toppings
September 27, 2008 at 6:42 am | Posted in daring bakers, groups, savory things, snacks, yeast breads | 51 CommentsTags: baking, savory, snacks
This month we had our first “Alternative” Daring Bakers’ Challenge! Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl teamed up to bring us a two-part challenge. The first part involved making homemade lavash. Lavash are thin Armenian-style crackers. They are very popular here in Australia, and packets go for big bucks in the gourmet stores. Funny how easy it is to make them yourself! Lavash are great with cheese, but the second part of this challenge was to concoct a vegan and gluten-free spread or dip to go with them.
Lavash dough is a simple yeasted dough, rolled out thin and often sprinkled with a seedy topping. We were allowed to flavor the dough itself if we so desired, so I subbed a couple of tablespoons of the bread flour for wheat germ. This gave the baked crackers a subtle, almost Wheat Thins-like flavor. I made a full batch of the dough and divided it into two pieces–one to use straight away, and one to park overnight in the fridge. I used different toppings and made a different spread for each.
When it came time to roll the dough, I busted out my pasta machine (for the first time since moving to Sydney, so I was glad to actually have used it and justified its move). I’ve made some form of cracker in every restaurant I’ve worked in, and have always used a pasta machine to roll them out. It makes such quick work of it and is the easiest, least frustrating way to get your crakcers paper thin. Use the lasagna sheet section, work with one bit of dough at a time, and take it down to the thinnest setting.
For my first batch of cracker, I rolled out long, wide pieces that I sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds, cumin seeds, cayenne pepper and Kosher salt before baking (brushing on a little water first acts as glue for the topping). I simply broke these big pieces into more manageable shards after baking. I served them with a chunky avocado relish with heaps of cilantro, lemon juice and spices.
For my second batch of cracker, I got a bit more fussy. Instead of just baking off big pieces in whatever form they took when rolled, I used a pastry wheel to cut them into rectangular crackers. I sprinkled them with poppy seeds and Maldon salt. I had a huge bag of fava beans (a.k.a broad beans) from the farmers’ market, so I took about half of them and whizzed them into a dip for this batch of lavash.
I was really pleased with challenge! The lavash and dips made perfect pre-dinner snacks (with a glass of wine, not too shabby!). And how impressed would your friends be if you served them homemade crackers at a dinner party?
Check out the DB blogroll! And visit Gluten A Go Go or Musings From the Fishbowl for the lavash recipe (which was adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart). I made my two spreads pretty much freehand, but the basic procedures are below.
Chunky Avocado Relish
1 avocado
leafy green herb (such as basil or cilantro)
juice of half a lemon
olive or avocado oil
ground spices to taste (I used garam masala, cayenne, and cumin)
salt and black pepper to taste
-Scoop out the avocado and dice into chunks. Chop your herb. In a small bowl, make a dressing from the lemon juice, a slight splash of oil, the spices and salt and pepper. Add the avocado and herb to the bowl and toss gently to mix.
Fava Bean Dip
1 1/2 cups fava beans, shelled from the outer pod
1 clove of garlic
leafy green herb (such as basil, parsley or cilantro)
squirt of lemon juice
olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste
-Bring a medium pot of water to the boil. Blanch the fava beans for about thirty seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and shock in ice water. Pop the garlic clove, peeled or unpeeled, into the boiling water and blanch for about 1 minute (this just helps take the edge off the raw garlic).
-Pop the papery outer skins off the blanched fava beans and discard. Peel the garlic clove if you haven’t already, and rough chop.
-Put the fava beans, garlic, lemon juice, herbs, splash of olive oil, salt and pepper into a mini food processor. Pulse until it’s the consistency you like (you can use a couple tablespoons of water to thin out, if needed). Taste for seasoning.
SHF#47: Vanilla Date Cupcakes with Buttermilk Fudge Frosting
September 26, 2008 at 4:50 pm | Posted in cupcakes, events, sweet things | 7 Comments
Not sure why, but I haven’t participated in Sugar High Friday in awhile. This month, though, I found myself seduced by a cupcake-loving pink flamingo into sending super-sweet Fanny a super-sweet cupcake for her round-up.
I’ve been on a tear lately trying to use up things in my pantry. One of those things was a bag of dates that had been lingering around for longer than I would like to admit. It was time for them to move out, and I found them a new home thanks to one of my favorite baking books, Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen. She has a recipe for moist date cupcakes, flecked with vanilla bean and frosted with buttermilk fudge. It sounded so interesting, I had to give it a go!
With the combination of dates, brown sugar and buttermilk, the cakes are golden-hued, really moist and delicious, and keep nicely for a few days. There isn’t a picture in the book, but the author’s instructions led me to believe that the frosting would be quite stiff. Mine actually had a consistency in between a glaze and a normal icing. I could definitely spread it on, but I couldn’t heap it on. It is definitely sweet, though, and a little goes a long way, so maybe that was a good thing. I thought about chilling the icing, then whipping it further, but I liked the smooth tops and gentle drips that formed as it set.
Vanilla Date Cupcakes with Buttermilk Fudge Frosting– makes 8 regular-size cupcakes
adapted from Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen
Note: If some of these measurements seem a little screwy, that’s because I downsized it from the original, which was much larger and meant to produce jumbo cupcakes.
For the cupcakes:
2 1/2 oz plump, pitted dates, coarsely chopped
5 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c light brown sugar, packed
seeds of 1/3 vanilla bean
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 t pure vanilla extract (or dark rum)
1 c cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1/3 t baking powder
1/3 t baking soda
1/8 t kosher salt
pinch of grated nutmeg
1/3 c + 1 T buttermilk
-Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pan with 8 paper liners.
-Put the chopped dates in a small bowl and pour 3 T boiling water over them. Let sit for a few minutes, and mash with a fork to a rough paste. Set aside while you prepare the batter.
-By hand, or using a hand-held mixer, cream the butter, two sugars and vanilla seeds until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Add the egg, then add the vanilla extract (or rum) and mix well.
-In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
-Add the buttermilk and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, beginning with the buttermilk and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the date paste into the batter with a rubber spatula.
-Divide the batter among the cupcake cups, filling each one 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
-Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely on a rack before frosting.
For the frosting:
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 t light corn syrup
1 1/3 T unsalted butter, in small pieces
1/3 c buttermilk, plus an additional 1 T, for thinning the cooked frosting
1/3 t baking soda, sifted
1/4 t pure vanilla extract or paste
-Combine the sugar, corn syrup, butter, buttermilk and baking soda in a heavy-bottomed pot (use a larger pot than you think you will need…this mixture bubbles up to about four times its original volume as it comes to the boil!). Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat slightly and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir one last time as it comes to the boil, then don’t stir again.
-Boil the syrup until it reaches 236°F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage). You will see that the frosting caramelizes as it cooks. Immediately pour it into a mixing bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip). Let it cool for about five minutes.
-Stir in the vanilla extract or paste, then beat on medium speed until thick enough to spread, about five minutes. If the frosting is too thick, add the additional buttermilk, one teaspoon at a time.
-Slather the tops of the cupcakes with the frosting and cool before serving. You can place the cupcakes in the refrigerator to set the icing if it seems loose, or add additional teaspoons of buttermilk if it seems too thick. (If it is too loose to work with, you can try chilling it for 10 minutes or so, then re-whipping.)
-Iced cupcakes can be stores for 2-3 days in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator (bring to room temperature before serving). If you have more frosting than you need, transfer extras to a small, flat container…it will set up as fudge in the refrigerator.
Bill’s Ricotta Hotcakes
September 25, 2008 at 1:55 pm | Posted in breakfast things, pancakes/waffles | 14 Comments
Pancakes, hotcakes, flapjacks, griddlecakes…whatever you’re callin’ ’em, I’m lovin’ ’em! Without a doubt, they are my favorite breakfast. In theory, I relish the idea of ordering pancakes in a café: letting someone else do the work for me while I rub my eyes and sip cappuccino. It’s not so much the cooking itself, but the thought of all that washing up afterwards (and in the morning!) that bores me to tears. In practice, though, I make them at home quite often, because the restaurant ones are so often heavy, dense and disappointing.
Of course, if you look around enough, you can find restaurant pancake excellence, and in Sydney my gold star goes to Bill Granger’s ricotta hotcakes. There are three bills restaurants here in the Big Smoke and, although I’m partial to the Woollahra branch, they all serve the same delicious hotcakes. So light, thanks to the creamy ricotta and meringue folded into the batter, they are like little puddingy, syrup-drenched souffles. Luckily, Bill doesn’t keep his recipes secret, and since I have his cookbook bills Sydney Food, I’ll be able to make these myself when I am no longer living such a short drive from pancake bliss.
If you have an Italian or gourmet store that sells fresh ricotta in the deli case, do yourself a favor and buy a little tub of that. I hadn’t tried fresh ricotta myself until a few months ago, and couldn’t believe the taste and texture–so much better than the prepacked, mass produced stuff. And, at least where I normally shop (at Norton St. Grocer, but I see it all over the place), it’s less expensive and I can just buy what I need. Low fat is what I get, and it works great here.
I made half of the recipe below, and it turned out four small-to-medium cakes each (there are two of us). It looked like I had a big plate, but all I was left with was this…
Bill’s Ricotta Hotcakes– serves 4-5
adapted from bills Sydney Food by Bill Granger
Note: Hotcake batter can be stored for up to 24 hours, covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
1 1/3 c ricotta
3/4 c milk
4 eggs, separated
1 c AP flour
1 t baking powder
a pinch of cinnamon (optional)
a pinch of salt
butter for the pan or griddle
-Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a bowl and combine.
-Sift the flour, baking powder and salt (and cinnamon, if using) into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
-Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. With a large metal spoon, fold the meringue through batter in two batches.
-Heat a large non-stick frying pan, cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat. Lightly grease with butter (I like to lightly spray mine first, then butter) and drop two tablespoons of batter per hotcake. Don’t cook more than three per batch. Cook over a low to medium heat for two minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.
-Transfer to a plate. Dust with icing sugar and serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Dimply Peach Cake
September 23, 2008 at 5:49 am | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 49 Comments
Michelle of Bake-En selected Dorie’s Dimply Plum Cake for this week’s TWD. I’ve read about this little breakfast cake all over the place, so I was really looking forward to trying it. Unfortunately, stone fruits are not in season just yet here in Australia. I had to take what I could get on this one, and what I could get were a couple of rock-hard peaches. I stuck ’em in a paper bag and crossed my fingers that they’d ripen after a few days.
Well, they didn’t really ripen at all, and frankly I was surprised that I could even get the pits out, but I charged ahead with my out of season fruit anyway. I went with one of Dorie’s “playing around” suggestions and added a few shredded basil leaves instead of citrus zest to the cake batter. I kept in the cardamom, which is a spice I love, and added a pinch of cinnamon, too. To try and help the crunchy peaches along a bit, I sprinkled each exposed half with sugar just before putting the cake in the oven, and then a couple more times during the baking process as well.
Such a cute cake– I loved the fruity dimples, and the peach halves looked almost like hearts! What I’ve hidden from you in these photos, though, is a little patch of raw batter left under each peach half. Drat– I couldn’t get that part to cook through for the life of me! In a flash of genius while taking these photos, I thought that if I flipped the individual slices upside-down on a baking sheet and stuck them under the broiler for a minute, I cook get the raw bits to firm up. And it worked! (That technique might get a little messy with a whole large cake.) There was no time to take extra pics, however, as the coffee was good to go, and R was grumbling that breakfast was already taking too long.
I made half a recipe and baked it in a standard-sized loaf pan. Leftovers weren’t a problem, as R and I polished off the whole thing in one sitting! The peaches did sweeten and soften nicely in the oven (I do think the sugar sprinklings helped), and I loved the warm, spicy cardamom flavor. Although R was initially suspicious, the basil was a really nice touch, too…I should bake with herbs more often.
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (she also has it on Serious Eats) or read Bake-En. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Chunkers
September 16, 2008 at 4:15 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 54 Comments
Just reading the recipe for this cookie is enough to make you grab a tube of Clearasil and apply a proactive smear all over your face. You may initially feel relief upon only seeing 3 tablespoons of butter, but look a little closer, and you’ll see 1+(6×3)=19…19 ounces of chocolate! This cookie is basically bits of chocolate held together with a smidge of brownie batter. Before you think I’m poo-pooing the Chocolate Chunkers (did someone say poo-poo? hmmm…I won’t go any further, but I think you know what I mean), let me make it clear that they are insanely good! Thanks to Claudia of Fool for Food for picking it for TWD this week! And a special shout-out to Mari…I did totally copycat you with the cooling rack thing (although yours is cuter!). What can I say? I am out of ideas for cookie photography at this point.
This recipe is easily divides in half, but I toughed out the math to cut it down to just a third. I didn’t want to blow my whole chocolate stash in one swoop. Dorie notes that good chocolate is a must here, and she ain’t kidding. For the label-curious, I used cocoa powder by Valrhona, bittersweet by Scharffen Berger, unsweetened (well, really 85%) by Lindt, milk by Green & Black’s and white by Belcolade. Semisweet was also in the recipe, but I don’t have any, so I used a bittersweet/milk combo instead. It’s not all chocolate in here, though…there are nuts and dried fruit going on, too. I decided to toss in coconut flakes rather than raisins, which I don’t like, and toasted almonds. The whole thing was deliciuosly Almond Joy-esq.
A couple of observations…if you chill this dough, it becomes rock-hard! For easier shaping, and the well-being of your cookie scoop, you may want to let it come to room temp before digging into it. Also, my cookies didn’t want to flatten at all in the oven, so at the half-way point I helped them out by giving them a gentle smoosh with a silicone spatula.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Claudia’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
P.S.: This week I’m Port Douglas, Queensland. I know, I know…I’ve been travelling a lot lately. Back over the weekend!
Vanilla Malted Ice Cream
September 10, 2008 at 6:33 pm | Posted in ice creams & frozen, sweet things | 29 Comments
You know the ice cream from my last post? Well, I did say I’d type up the recipe for you, and I do not fib (at least not often, and when I do, I usually get caught).
Making up your own ice cream flavors isn’t hard. Here, I pretty much just futzed around with a standard formula for vanilla ice cream that I often use, but the idea to add skim milk powder to the base and the technique of cooking it over a double boiler (no tempering that way) came from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy. (By the way, if you haven’t tried the Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream from her book, it is most excellent.)
After the cookies were polished off, R and I enjoyed the ice cream in sundae form! With chocolate sauce, it was truly spectacular (the sauce was leftover from the DB’s eclair challenge, but I’ll list that recipe below as well, just in case you want it). I’m imagining it would have made a damn good malted milkshake, too, but the ice cream is just a sweet memory now…
Vanilla Malted Ice Cream- makes about 1 quart
1½ c cream
1½ c milk
½ c vanilla sugar (or ½ c granulated sugar + ½ vanilla bean, split and scraped)
1/8 t salt
1/4 c skim milk powder
2 T barley malt syrup
4 egg yolks
½ t vanilla extract
about 1/8 t xanthan gum (optional; helps keep ice cream scoopable)
-Set yourself up with a double boiler: Put a few inches of water into a large, heavy saucepot and bring to a simmer. Find a heatproof bowl both big enough to hold the above ingredients and big enough to sit over the pot without touching the simmering water.
-In the bowl, thoroughly combine the cream, milk, vanilla sugar, salt, skim milk powder, malt syrup and egg yolks with a whisk.
-Set the bowl over the simmering water and stir the mixture constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and reaches 180°-185°F (this takes 5-10 minutes). You may need to adjust the heat to keep the water at a simmer.
-Take the bowl off the heat and whisk in vanilla extract and xanthan gum (if using). Now is also a good time to taste the base…if it’s not malty enough for you, add in another tablespoon of syrup.
-Strain the base into a clean storage container or large glass measuring cup. Cool over an ice bath. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
-Pour the chilled base into your ice cream maker and freeze.
-Transfer to a resealable container and place in the freezer until firm enough to scoop.
Chocolate Sauce- makes 1½ cups or 525 g
from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 c (250 g) water
½ c (125 g) heavy cream (or crème fraîche)
1/3 c (70 g) sugar
-Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to whisk constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue whisking until the sauce thickens.
-It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of a spoon.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops
September 9, 2008 at 5:20 am | Posted in cookies & bars, events, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 63 Comments
We had a great week in New Zealand…the South Island is so beautiful, with so many different landscapes, it almost doesn’t look real in some places. And the baby sheep (otherwise known as lambs, I guess)–heart-meltingly cute! Lots of good food and vino, too (so much that, even though we brought back several bottles of wine, I am on the wagon for the next couple weeks). Should you ever go to Christchurch, do yourself a favor and check out Restaurant Schwass. Same goes for Gibb’s Vineyard Restaurant in Blenheim in the Marlborough wine region.
Enough rambling–on to the cookies! Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops are the TWD choice of Rachel from Confessions of a Tangerine Tart. These cookies are really Maltesers drops, the brand of malt ball sold here. A lot of people say they are better than Whoppers, but I haven’t had a Whopper in a very long time, so I can neither confirm nor deny this. (If you live in Brooklyn, though, the dark chocolate espresso malt balls sold at Two For the Pot on Clinton Street are most definitely the best ever!) I was pleased to notice a dark version of Maltesers, and that’s what I used here.
I, of course, only made half a batch of cookies, and they were a bit of a test-kitchen experiment for me. I don’t have any malted milk powder, and I wasn’t about to buy a big canister of Milo or Ovaltine just to make cookies. I do, though, have barley malt syrup and powdered milk, so for my half-batch I used 1/2 cup of powdered milk and 2 teaspoons of malt syrup in place of the malt powder. Luckily, they were not a total mess! Malt syrup is strong stuff, and the flavor here is definitely noticeable. I did do something that some may consider a sin–I cut back the amount of chopped malt balls and chocolate chunks (for which I used white instead of dark) by about 25%. It was still plenty, trust me, but I guess that’s why I don’t see as many chunky bits on the surface of mine as in Dorie’s book picture.
The first night, we ate them straight up, and they were so soft and chewy that R commented that they would be the perfect ice cream sandwich cookie. Well, I can’t ignore a comment like that, so the next day I made a batch of vanilla malted ice cream. He was right–they were great, albeit a little drippy.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Confessions of a Tangerine Tart to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
September 2, 2008 at 4:09 am | Posted in cookies & bars, events, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 43 Comments
This week for TWD, Stefany of Proceed with Caution chose these Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. They combine the best bits of all my favorite cookies, and even have a little spice in there, too!
Since more cookies are on the baking horizon, I made just a quarter recipe. I have a lot of half-used bits of chocolate floating around, so I put milk chocolate chunks instead of bittersweet in these, purely for the satisfaction of finishing off a bar.
They came out great, thankfully. Anytime I have to bake with my precious stash of Jif (which I bring back on trips the States), I sweat a little that the recipe will be a bomb. The PB is subtle in flavor, but the cookies really smell peanuty, and the little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg gives them a warm flavor. I baked mine on the low end of the recommended time, so they’d stay a little soft, which is how I prefer a chocolate chip cookie to be. Dorie notes that these are great cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with. I totally bet she’s right, but I didn’t have the stomach (or maybe too much of the stomach is really my problem) to try that out!
I’m actually in New Zealand for most of the week and may not be able to go through the TWD Blogroll myself, but you should definitely check it out! And look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Proceed with Caution to find the recipe for these cookies.
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